Greenside resident Gary Alfonso writes:
I’d like to highlight some good work from the often-criticised Johannesburg City Power department, with whom I think most residents and ratepayers have a love-hate relationship. Depending on which side of a lengthy power outing you may be standing.
We have lived in Greenside Ext 2, at the upper end of Clovelly Street, for 20 years now.
Thirteen years ago, the power distribution box started acting up – and parts of the neighbourhood would go through frequent periods without power due to delayed repairs, power surges after load shedding and the general disrepair that old electricity infrastructure like this falls into due to lack of maintenance. The distributor exploded twice in the last year, once as power was restored after load shedding and another time, in December, when heavy storms hit the city and the cover of the distributor had still not been replaced from the previous incident.
However, when the power distributor in Clovelly Street was struck by lightning, exploded and started burning on 28 December last year, the City Power guys were on scene the next morning and started the difficult task of completely replacing the old unit with a new unit. Over many hours and often in darkness and continuing rain, these guys dug trenches to remove old, burnt-out cables and put in new connectors. Residents gave the guys coffee and drinks as a sign of appreciation of the work being under tough conditions. It was clearly not an easy job, but they pushed hard and in 48 hours the unit was replaced and power restored. Hats off on a job well done.
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